1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a communication apparatus such as stationary or portable telephone, and in particular to an alerting method and apparatus for alerting a user by sound. vibration, and/or light to call arrival to the communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a portable radio telephone which previously stores a plurality of alerting tones, for example, different melodies corresponding to different caller numbers. When an incoming call using Caller ID service occurs, the telephone makes a specific alerting sound corresponding to the caller number of the incoming call. However, the larger the number of caller numbers to be registered, the more troublesome the setting work. Further, an increasing number of caller numbers to be registered requires a larger amount of memory for storing them. Furthermore, since the number of kinds of alerting sounds available is usually limited, it is necessary in some case to assign a single alerting tone to different caller numbers. Therefore, there are cases where the user cannot determine from an alerting sound who is calling.
There has been also proposed a telephone set that is capable of simply identifying a caller through an incoming call tone. The telephone set stores a tone name in cross reference with a telephone number and makes an alerting sound according to a string of tone names corresponding to the caller number. However, each time an incoming call occurs, the alerting sound according to a string of tone names corresponding to the caller number is generated to alert the user to call arrival. There are cases where an ordinary ringer is sufficient for this purpose.
An object of the present invention is to provide a communication apparatus and alerting method which allow easy setting operation of alerting mode depending on how the communication apparatus is use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a communication apparatus and an alerting method which can achieve a high degree of flexibility in setting an alerting mode.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a communication apparatus which has a function of receiving a source identification number when an incoming call occurs is comprised of: an alerting device; a memory storing a table containing alerting data associated with each of numeric characters; a selector for selecting one of a first alerting mode and a second alerting mode, the first alerting mode providing an alerting pattern which is determined by referring to the table depending on the source identification number, and the second alerting mode providing a preset alerting pattern; and a controller for controlling the alerting device such that, when the incoming call does not include the source identification number, the alerting device operates in the second alerting mode and, when the incoming call includes the source identification number, the alerting device operates in a selected one of the first alerting mode and the second alerting mode.
The communication apparatus preferably includes an input section for changing a correspondence of the table between the alerting data and each of the numeric characters. Further preferably, the selector and the input section are implemented by a keypad including a ten-key pad provided in the communication apparatus.
The alerting data associated with each of the numeric characters may be composed of at least one note of musical scale, wherein the alerting device is a speaker for producing an alerting sound. The alerting data may be composed of at least one pattern of vibration, wherein the alerting device is a vibrator for producing silent alerting vibration. Preferably, the alerting data may be composed of any combination of a dot-like duration vibration pattern and a dash-like duration vibration pattern.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a communication apparatus includes a first memory storing name data associated with each of registered identification numbers, the name data consisting of a plurality of alphabetic characters and a second memory storing a table containing alerting data associated with each of alphanumeric characters. The controller controls such that, when the incoming call includes the source identification number, the first memory is searched for name data associated with the source identification number and the alerting device generates an alerting pattern which is determined by referring to the table depending on the name data found in the first memory.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a communication apparatus includes a first memory retrievably storing name data associated with each of registered identification numbers, the name data consisting of a plurality of alphabetic characters and a second memory retrievably storing alerting data associated with each of alphanumeric characters. Further, the communication apparatus is provided with first and second selectors. The first selector selects one of a first alerting mode and a second alerting mode the first alerting mode providing an alerting pattern which is determined depending on the source identification number and the second alerting mode providing a preset alerting pattern. The second selector selects one of a third alerting mode and a fourth alerting mode when the first alerting mode has been selected, the third alerting mode providing the alerting pattern which is determined by referring to the first and second memories depending on the source identification number, and the fourth alerting mode providing the alerting pattern which is determined by the second memory depending on the source identification number. The controller controls such that, when the incoming call does not include the source identification number, the alerting device operates in the second alerting mode and, when the incoming call Includes the source identification number, the alerting device operates in a selected one of the third alerting mode and the fourth alerting mode.